


Neptune's Tears

by Cumbermarvel (UglyJackal)



Series: Marvel Whumptober 2018 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Nightmares, Stephen has a nightmare and Scott comforts him because he's a good boyfriend, Whumptober, teen and up rating because of very mild gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-09
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-28 16:18:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16245335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UglyJackal/pseuds/Cumbermarvel
Summary: But he didn’t have to imagine that kind of pain. He had lived it.





	Neptune's Tears

**Author's Note:**

> Whumptober 2018 Day 9: Stranded
> 
> nice little cheerful fic for myself to write on my day of birth

Most of the general public erased the possibility of superheroes having nightmares or anxiety or trauma left over from numerous near-death experiences. Most of the general public were very wrong.

Though, Doctor Stephen Strange was a special case. Seeing as his “near-death experience” was closer to “death” than “near”.

Several times, he would joke about it, just to try to turn the pure fear into laughter. He often expressed his nonchalant stance on what death was like when Peter joked about wanting to die. ‘It gets rather dull after the first few thousand times,’ he had once drawled to several concerned glances.

But no amount of jokes could expel the terror, the memory of the pain. And it certainly couldn’t banish the nightmares that plagued him some nights.

‘Stephen,’ Scott murmured, a hand on the shaking shoulder.

The sorcerer was whimpering and trembling as though he had delved into sub-zero temperatures. His face was contorted into a twist of agony, as though his body was being shredded apart and stitched back together with spines flavoured with acid, as though glass spears were diving through his muscles over and over, where his skeleton was pulled out of his eye sockets and ground into a fine paste.

But he didn’t have to imagine that kind of pain.

He had lived it.

He had been stranded there, left to the hands of Dormammu, no one had thought to save him, to pull him from the time loop. No one had cared enough.

Eyes were pulled open by invisible hands that ached. He sat bolt upright, looking around him frantically. Orange magic bubbled at his scarred fingertips. His lungs pumped oxygen in and out as three times their normal speed.

Scott immediately had his arms around Stephen’s heaving chest. ‘It’s okay, hazelnut,’ he hummed, ‘you’re fine, you’re safe.’

The sorcerer’s breath slowed gradually, like a stallion coming to rest after a monster had leapt from the bushes.

And that’s when the tears came. They bubbled from his eyes like syrup from Neptune, dripping down off of his bearded jaw, slow and steady like star-kissed honey.

He turned and wrapped his arms around Scott’s waist, burying his head into his boyfriend’s neck. He sobbed, long and hard, the shorter man’s shoulder soon becoming damp with Neptune’s tears. The former thief held on tight to the wizard until the tears stopped. Scott gently lay down, still holding the scared man, who nuzzled his face into Scott’s bare chest and hung onto him like a lifeline, like he was the only thing that would stop him from tumbling over the threshold into pure and utter insanity.

‘I know how it feels,’ Scott whispered into Stephen’s hair, ‘I know how it feels to be stranded.’

The mage looked up through tear-streaked universes at his boyfriend. ‘The… Quantum Realm?’ he asked, wetly.

The hero nodded. ‘Yeah… especially the second time.’

Stephen rested his head back on Scott’s chest, pressing a very light kiss to his skin. ‘I know.’

Neither of them would be able to forget the fear, the hopelessness, the feeling of giving up, giving in, allowing Death to take their pliant bodies into her unforgiving hands. And they would be called insane if they ever did forget.

**Author's Note:**

> Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/stephenstrangestan


End file.
